The Gospel of Mark Through Jewish Eyes - Part 2

Shalom, Folks. I hope you had a good week. Thanks for joining me and the others who are a part of this online class.   Some of this lesson might seem a bit on the heavy side as I lay a foundation for where I believe God is taking us as we study the Gospel of Mark through Jewish eyes. We are taking a look outside of Mark's gospel today to how the people he knew might be somewhat bewildered by our "church" today. But take heart, Yeshua has overcome the world, and we are living in a day when God is overcoming some  erroneous doctrines and restoring the truth of His Word where it is needed. And in contrast to some past periods of church history, a renewed sweet sense of His presence is available to us as has not always been there. 

When Yeshua walked the earth and taught God's people, He was largely bringing correction to misunderstandings of God that had come about through what some well-intentioned men had added to the Scriptures. Some of those intentions in time became sufficiently entrenched as religious doctrines so that   when Yeshua came to bring clarity to God's word, His teachings challenged their religious rules which also served to challenge their positions of power. This news isn't news to us, of course, but it's still significant to consider because it serves to make us aware that we too must be careful not to hold onto cherished ways of "doing church" that God may be seeking to better align with His word and His ways.

What John the Immerser said he was bringing was a message to prepare for the coming Messiah, and then Yeshua Himself, through His teachings and acts brought to Israel truth and revelation that also prepared God's people, those with ears to hear, for what Yeshua's atoning death and resurrection accomplished. Could it be that what God is doing today, bringing truth where it has been corrupted, and restoring correct understanding to misinterpreted Scripture is also preparation for the fulfillment of His final redemptive plan for mankind? New-found insights into places in God's Word  that were unclear or confusing before and now being understood that may have been misinterpreted or identified as something that wasn't what was happening at all. But now we have information to inform us of what was really being said. We will be talking about a number of these as we go on in our study. These are helping to readjust some of our concepts of the Father and His Son in "Spirit and in truth" by revealing truth where text has been added or misinterpreted. Happily, we are living in a time when our God is restoring  the power of the truth of His word and it is being manifested in our lives once again with healing, signs and wonders and changed lives. How exiting is all that?!

My mind just went to what Moses must have felt as 'The God of All There Is' Himself gave him unprecedented insights from creation forward that would impact not only Israel but the whole world! No wonder he was so exasperated and angry when he saw the people worshiping an insignificant golden calf after being with the Almighty Creator of the world! This gives me the expectation that for those of us who will spend time with God and let Him impart to us Who He truly is, the foolish things we once saw as "gold" and of value will fall away so that we can see that only He is worthy of worship and being adored.  But back to Mark.   

Remember, this is the first writing of the story of Yeshua and Mark had to decide what to say. The challenge was not what to include but what to leave out as there was so much to say. Each thing he chose to put in the story he obviously felt was more meaningful than some other things he didn't include, in order to build a true picture of Messiah Yeshua.  Try to give some thought to Mark's motivation for wanting his readers to know this or that about Yeshua as we go on for some added insight into the story. Mark as the shortest of the four gospels seems clipped in speech and brief, as if Yeshua's always in a hurry. Not so. Mark uses the term ‘Immediately’ often which means more like “and then this happened.”

There is controversy as to whether this Mark is the John Mark of Acts or not. If so, then the believers would have been meeting in his home under his mother's hospitality, and so as a young man he would have seen or been a part of much of what the virgin church was experiencing, including when Peter came to the door after being put in jail and Rhoda thought it was Peter's ghost and not Peter himself at the door (Acts 12:12-16).  If he is that Mark, he would also have been the cousin of Barnabas who, being a Levite might mean that Mark also was a Levite and possibly came from a family of temple-serving priests (Acts 4:36). (There's so much in between the lines I wish we knew.)  Barnabas brought John Mark, now called just Mark, along on a mission trip with Paul (Colossians 4:10), only to have a falling out with Paul about Mark's behavior in some way, though later Paul asked for him to come to him saying that Mark "is useful to me in ministry" (2 Timothy 4:11). Evidently forgiveness for whatever happened put it behind them both. And we know that Mark traveled with Peter as well and heard all his stories which information, it is thought by scholars, is what Mark likely based a good bit of his gospel upon.

The sentence structure in Mark occasionally uses some Latin phraseology, “gospel” being one of them meaning good news, but the writing is more Hebrew in phrases and sentence structure, making Mark’s gospel undeniably Hebrew.  Even though Mark may have been addressing some Gentiles, he tells the story the way he heard it from Peter, and Peter certainly spoke as a Jew, telling the story of the Jewish Messiah to other Jews.  Keep in mind that Mark and the first century Jewish followers of Yeshua had every reason to believe that all who would come to the Lord – Jew or non-Jew – would see that Yeshua was the perfect embodiment of the Word of God given to Moses and the prophets, as there was nothing in Yeshua contrary to those teachings.  He fulfilled every Biblical prophecy pertaining to His life and lived His life as the quintessential Jew in every way.  The believers would have unquestionably thought, of course Yeshua would always be regarded as the fulfillment of the teachings God gave to Moses!  How could it be otherwise? 

These very teachings, known as the Torah defined for Israel how to live the highest quality of life on earth, free from selfishness and all that comes about as a result of it; free from the guilt of sin, and a way to live under the protection and provision of God. It also told of how this One God created the world - a good thing to know - so there is to be no worship of any other (false) gods. No other nation had anything close to this way of life.  So of course those early believers in Yeshua would expect nothing different of anyone who would come to trust in Israel’s Messiah.  As we read through Mark, consider that all that Yeshua lived out in what He said and did, to the very moment of the end of His life as a Man, was in the context of fulfilling the Hebrew Scriptures.

How ironic it is then that within a few hundred years almost all that was Hebrew or Jewish, including Scripture, was removed by its leaders from the church.  The Reformation of the church certainly did what it's name implies, it reformed many wrong doctrines and did away with many heretical practices, but it was just that, a reforming of church ways; it was not the Restoration that Peter said must take place before Yeshua's return. To quote Peter again as it continues to be a foundational verse for this study, "Yeshua is withheld in heaven until the restoration of all things as spoken by the prophets from the beginning" (Acts 3:21). It is those things we're in search of today and in this study!   

Please note also that there is not one place throughout the entire Tenakh, the Old Testament, where the Torah is referred to as "the law." Rather, the Hebrew words used are more along the lines of teachings or instructions. The Hebrews did not regard the Torah as "you better keep these or else..." but rather as instructions on how to live the best way of life according to all God had taught them. We will talk more later about this when we come to Yeshua's relationship with the Pharisees, but keep in minds that how we may read the word "law" in our English bibles does not present us with an accurate picture of Israel's relationship with YHVH. Think of the teachings also not so much as being Jewish but Godish!  Because it is God who gave Israel their entire way of life through the Torah which Yeshua embodied.

Some of this may be foreign to those who have been raised in the church that has been so alienated from Yeshua’s life as a Hebrew because anti-Hebrew misinterpretations became entrenched rather early on in the church. Even that word church is a misinterpretation of another word, ekklesia which is actually a Greek word, having to do with those who are called out for a purpose. Believers are certainly 'called out' of the worldliness around us. Though we are 'in' the world, we are not to be 'of' the world. You already knew that, right? In meeting together, the ekklesia formed a Kehilla, a Hebrew word having to do with a congregation meeting together in meaningful relationships. Messianic congregations in Israel today are still identified as Kehillote (plural for kehilla).  The term doesn’t have to do with a building, but even so, coming together still had to take place somewhere. Somehow though the word "church" brings up in each of our minds a number of connotations that would not have been familiar to our first century Hebrew brothers and sisters. 

I'm not saying any of this is bad, or that there aren't legitimate ways we are to adapt to the cultures in which we now live, or that anything 'modern' is against the will of God. Of course not, but you may agree that on the whole we do not look like the Book of Acts in terms of spiritual commitment and overarching love for Yeshua. Not yet anyway.  But if we are to give any thought to what God might want to restore to His people, consider that the pristine kehillot would not have even had a clue of what would come about among believers in Yeshua. They would not have envisioned one pastor as a leader who would be the only person who speaks at meetings (even Paul had dialogs, not monologs).  The early believers would not have imagined rows of pews where believers sit silently and passively without anyone contributing insights or revelations, prophetic words of the intentions or affirmations from God or encouragement of the Holy Spirit, or where there would be no messages in tongues with interpretations to reveal God's heart on specific issues - all of which was normal in meetings among the believers. Nor could they have imagined that the power of the Spirit to bring healing would be rare and deliverance from demons just about non-existent. Worship bands of professional musicians, not to mention ear-blasting sound systems, would have confounded them, and certainly, God help us, they would never have even conceived of the Feasts of the Lord having been considered heresy and replaced by two pagan-influenced holidays called Easter and Christmas. Add to all this that it would have been incomprehensible to them that their sacred day of Shabbat would be changed to  when the Roman sun god was worshiped, a day called sun-day, mixing worship of Yeshua and this false god together - thus violating two commandments to keep the Sabbath on the eighth day and to never worship a false god.

Can you see why God, who could envision what would happen, would speak prophetically through Peter and say to Israel, "Yeshua is withheld in heaven until the restoration of all things as spoken by the prophets from the beginning" (Acts 3:21)?  I believe we are in that day or restoration.  Israel is God's prophetic time piece and prophesies are being fulfilled regarding Israel more now than ever before. Not the least of which is the restoration we are talking about.  

When man seeks to bring about the Kingdom of God by their own efforts and ideas, it will eventually become what human kingdoms are made of and not of the spiritual power and merciful grace of God. It inevitably becomes more earthly than heavenly. On the other hand, no one could have imagined or accomplished what God did by the power of His Holy Spirit in the early church. Indeed, they would not even have had the vocabulary to describe what unfolded. I suspect the same thing is true of the work that God will do in His people who will yield to Him as He prepares us for Yeshua's return,which is to say, the move toward the ultimate establishment of the Kingdom of God on the restored earth. As we go through this study, it is my prayer that the Holy Spirit will bring truths to us that will bring us to deeper truths and consequently to a deeper trust in and love for Him.

Only God can bring about what is fully "of" Him.  We say, Lord, do by Your Spirit what needs to be done in our lives to make us one with You and instruments of glory.  Amen.
 
Till next week ,chaverim (friends, pronounced ha-ver-eem),
Lonnie 

This article may be shared but must include:  Shared with permission by Lonnie Lane, at Lonnielane.com, August 2016.